It seems common sense that what was the
biggest hospital ever built, should be the biggest demolition job ever attempted
for a hospital when the time came to knock it down! Both claims are recorded as
factual statements.

What does the word
NETLEY
mean to you?

Or

if not the word NETLEY, the words
Royal Victoria
Hospital, abbreviated of course to RVH?

If your answer is "nothing" or "not a lot",
then you clearly do not belong to my era of Naval Service which was from 1953
until 1983. More about that in a minute.

Britain is a paradox when it comes to
deciding which 'tool' to use, and whilst we are happier with the PEN {for it is
mightier than the sword} we have often put our pen away and picked up the SWORD
to defend ourselves, our friends or civilised ways including democracy,

and by so doing, countless thousands of our
men died or were wounded [some to subsequently die].

For many years in our history, wounded
personnel were treated piecemeal, some receiving the finest medical attention
available whilst others were left to ship or regimental surgeons often dying
from the post wound treatment rather than from the wound itself.

The treatment of the wounded changed with
the help of Florence Nightingale, for what she achieved at the front, in the
Crimean War [1854-1855], did not go unnoticed back home by medics and
administrators alike.

Before the war in the Crimea had even
finished, the authorities decided that a major hospital was needed which would
treat the maimed and wounded. Apart from the obvious need for it to be large
enough for the huge number of wounded and medically state-of-the-art to
circumvent death due to post injury disease/surgery, it had to be built in
an area of natural beauty so as to make the recuperation and convalescent period
as pleasant as possible, and had to be near to a major sea port also served by a
rail head allowing ships and trains to offload their sad cargo.

The place chosen was on the North East shore
line of Southampton Water, West of the River Hamble at a place called Netley,
already famous for its beautiful Abbey and luxurious countryside. Here is a map
of the area and an arrow pointing to the spot.

The great liners of the world including the
greatest of them all the Queen Mary II, sail straight past, left to right coming
into Southampton Docks and right to left going to New York, range at closest
point of approach [CPA - a good old Naval navigation abbreviation] just 200
yards [183 metres]. The following list tells of some of the high points of the
life of the hospital, which was named the Royal Victoria Hospital Netley.

Netley hospital was built in the aftermath of the carnage of the
Crimean War, during which Florence Nightingale showed how bad
medical facilities were in the Army. The foundation stone was laid
by Queen Victoria on the 19th May 1856. The hospital was
completed in 1863 at a cost of £350,000 [£25 million today in 2005].
It was the largest hospital ever built. Under the 2½
tons foundation stone of Welsh granite was buried something VERY
SPECIAL, the contents of which will be revealed later on.

Florence Nightingale disliked
Netley on account of its old-fashioned architecture, and tried to
alter its plans but without success. The windows with wonderful
views over Southampton Water were those of offices, administration
areas and medical staff common rooms and the injured men looked out
of windows [when they were able] looking down on out-houses and
other buildings.

The main hospital was ¼ of a mile
long. 30 million bricks were used in building the hospital with 3
million cubic feet of stone. Materials used were local bricks
and Welsh granite. It housed 1 thousand beds.

The hospital is set on the shores
of Southampton Water. Its pier - by Eugenius Birch, who also
build Bournemouth and Brighton piers - received hospital ships from
across the Empire.

Netley was also the home, until
1902, of the Army Medical School . In Conan Doyle's first Sherlock
Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, Dr Watson trained here
before moving to Baker Street in London.

In 1863 Jane Shaw brought 5 female
nurses to Netley. For a century the hospital was the home of
what is now the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.

In 1873 the Russian warship Prince
Pojarsky visited Netley and three of her sailors are buried in the
Netley Military Cemetery. This cemetery is a must visit place for
its graves and memorial stones tell a wonderful story.

Queen Victoria visited more than 20
times up to her death in 1901 and awarded three Victoria Crosses to
patients at Netley.

During the South African Boer Wars
of 1899-1901, Netley was very busy with casualties brought by ship
to Southampton.

In 1900 a branch line from the rail
head to the hospital's station was opened which was used for
ambulance trains.

In 1914 a large Red Cross hutted
hospital of some 1 thousand beds was built at the rear of the RVH to
deal with the injured from WW1.

From 1914-1918 both Allied and
German casualties were treated at Netley during WW1: 20
thousand in the RVH and 30 thousand in the Red Cross Hospital.

In 1917, the famous WW1 poet
Wilfred Owen was treated at the RVH.

During WW2 the hospital received
casualties from Dunkirk evacuation and the Fall of France in June
1940.

In January 1944 the hospital was
taken over by the Americans. Following D-Day invasion in June
many Americans casualties were brought back from France. GI's drove
their Jeeps down the ¼ mile long corridors. From January 1944
to July 1945 the Americans treated 68 thousand casualties including
10 thousand Germans.

In the 1950's the main hospital
fell into disuse and in 1966 it was demolished leaving only the
Royal Chapel which still stands and is being renovated.
However, this only affected the main hospital building, and other
buildings on the site, chief of which were the officers mess and 'D'
BLOCK [more of that in a minute] remain standing to this very day,
the former as converted luxury accommodation flats and the later as
a Hampshire Police training college: both buildings are some
distance away from the old RVH itself.

In 1980 the 220 acre site became
the Royal Victoria Country Park and the Royal Chapel is the Heritage
Centre/Museum.

PLEASE READ THE TABLE ON THE RIGHT FIRST

In the table over to the right I have mentioned, in
the penultimate bullet, BLOCK 'D'. Even though the main RVH was
demolished in 1966, this block remained in service until its closure in
1978.

Block 'D'
for thousands of Royal Sailors, including me, WAS "NETLEY"
for this is where sailors who had mental disturbances and alcoholic
drink problems would come to be treated or "dried-out". Through our
ignorance, we were not aware, least not fully aware, that the VAST
MAJORITY of the site, the RVH proper, [indeed the proper name for Block
'D' was Victoria House] dealt with
ordinary Neurological, Orthopaedic, Surgical and Medical etc conditions.
Our mess-mates who had 'thrown-a-wobly' or who had witnessed giant flesh
eating monsters climbing onto their beds because of DT's, were sent to
Netley and not, emphatically not in naval speak terms, to BLOCK 'D' or
to Victoria House. Netley was the 'nut-house' and the butt of our jokes
and teasing. The word NETLEY was used in
everyday speech by all sailors and its applied meaning was universally
understood. Sailors with medical
conditions were sent to RNH Haslar, RNH Stonehouse etc in my time, and
RVH Netley was where poorly soldiers went; Victoria House Netley was
where all servicemen with Psychiatric problems went. In earlier
times, the Armed Forces has specialist VD hospitals and for the RN these
were at Devonport [Egg Buckland] {beds for 30 officers and 180 ratings}
and at Portsmouth in the Military Hospital at Hilsea {beds for 47
officers and 430 ratings}.

In the table over to the right, in the the first
bulleted item, I mentioned what had been put underneath the foundation
stone by the Queen and those responsible for the placing of the 2½
tons stone, which was uncovered with great ceremony by those who moved
the stone after the demolition of the RVH in 1966.

There, thinking and
hoping that the RVH would stand there for eternity, placed in a copper
box under the giant stone, was placed the original Victoria Cross which
was made by Royal Appointment from the bronze of Russian Canons capture
during the Crimean War, minted just 4 months before the Queen blessed
the foundation stone. Also in the copper box was the Crimean Medal with
four clasps and Her Majesty's Maundy Money for the year 1856. This
precious and historical artefact is now in Aldershot being looked after
by the Army.